Object

Representation ID: 23120

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Clowes Developments

Agent: Savills

Black Country Draft Plan Regulation 18 Consultation Representations on behalf of CWC Group - Clowes Developments Land at Lawnswood Road, South Staffordshire

Savills (UK) Limited, on behalf of CWC Group - Clowes Developments sets out the below representations in respect of their land at Lawnswood Road, South Staffordshire.

The site is listed as site 108 in the current Black Country SHLAA, as shown in the below Plan.

See Attachment

The site is located within South Staffordshire District and has been submitted to a Call for sites consultation in December 2019, accompanying representations to the previous round of consultation of the emerging South Staffordshire Local Plan.

There is a discrepancy between the site boundary put forward in the Black Country SH LAA and that set depicted in a submission made to the South Staffordshire call for sites. The Black Country SHLAA includes land at Ridgehill Woods, whereas the South Staffordshire Plan does not. We request that the site boundary being considered by the Black Country is amended to reflect the submission made to South Staffordshire, and remove Ridgehill Woods as land for development, as this was never the intention. A copy of this plan is submitted with these representations.

Due to the site's location within South Staffordshire, our comments below focuses on the Black County's Duty to Cooperate (DtC) with neighbouring authorities, including South Staffordshire regarding their unmet housing need. According to the consultation draft of the emerging Local Plan this totals 28,239 dwellings (37 .12% of BC's total requirement). This shortfall has occurred as the Black Country conclude that they have identified and made effective and extensive use of brownfield and urban sites and have also undertaken density uplifts in relation to both existing and new allocations.

The Shortfall Position

The Black Country regulation 18 draft plan sets out how the Black Country intend to meet its housing requirement of 76,076 dwellings in the period 2020 - 2039. This is planned to be delivered as follows:

• Total new homes proposed: 47,837 (62.88% of total requirement)
• To be exported through DtC: 28,239 (37.12% of total requirement)

This means that over a third of the Black Country's housing requirement will need to be met outside of its boundaries. At present there is no definitive conclusion of how the 28,239 dwellings are to be accommodated, notwithstanding the potential need for a buffer in addition to this total. Below we discuss the current position in relation to the current status of "offers" made by neighbouring LPAs to deal with the DtC requirement.

LPA "Offers"

We have composed the below table taking account of the "offers" set out in the Black Country DtC statement which was released for consultation along with the draft plan. We have set out below how contributions from each LPA compares in terms of being proportionate to the overall shortfall of 28,239.

See Attachment for Table 1: Agreed Contributions to Black Country Shortfall

In calculating the overall contribution from HMA LPAs, we have only considered contributions that have been confirmed by LPAs to be made specifically in respect of the Black Country's need. This is because agreement on how contributions towards general GBBCHMA shortfall has not been reached, which makes the approach being taken in the Black Country Plan unjustified and ineffective.

From our analysis, only 3,500 of the dwelling offers being made can be directly attributed to meeting the needs of the Black Country shortfall. This is significantly lower than the 8,000 dwelling total claimed by the BCAs in paragraph 7 .6 of the DtC Statement. Paragraph 7 .6 of the DtC states that "some of this contribution would need to be attributed to meeting the needs of Birmingham...." Therefore it remains unclear what "offers" are solely for the Black Country shortfall.

A key points that we draw from this analysis only 12% of the Black Country's housing shortfall appears to have been identified to date from neighbouring authorities which we consider to be a weak position for progressing the Black Country Plan.

From the Duty to Cooperate Statement it appears that there is a lack of clarity in respect of some "offers" and whether the housing being offered is for the Birmingham HMA shortfall or the Black Country shortfall or both.

Table 2 below sets out a review of the Birmingham and Black Country Housing Market Area and provides an overview of the proposed offer by each LPA towards the general housing shortfall in the wider Birmingham and Black Country HMA. It sets out what the current "offers" are in relation to the overall current proposed contributions that have been put forward and what that "offer" is in terms of the % of the overall wider HMA shortfall.

See Attachment for Table 2: Agreed and Potential Contributions to GBBCHMA Shortfall

We note in paragraph 7.9 that the Council make reference to potential contributions totaling a higher figure. The same issue applies here, in that this is mostly comprised of contributions referencing the whole HMA, rather than the Black Country specifically. Even in a very best case scenario in which all of the "offers" are attributed to the Black Country, this only accounts for 61 % of the unmet need and leaves 10,834 dwellings still to be found.

In summary, only 3,500 dwellings have been secured towards the unmet need, accounting for only 12% of the unmet need and leaving a further 24,739 dwellings to be found. The BCAs therefore have a lot more work to do in order to secure a suitable level of contributions towards the unmet need from their neighbours and meet their shortfall.

We consider that in order to fully address the shortfall, LPAs with the greatest geographical and functional relationship with BCAs should be making the greatest contribution towards this unmet need. Our analysis below shows that South Staffordshire is the LPA with the greatest geographical connection to the Black Country. The map bellow shows geographical connections to the Black Country, with South Staffordshire sharing 44% of the Black Country boundary.

See Attachment for Figure 2

Functionally, the LPAs are connected by proximity and key connections such as the M54 and M5 motorways and the Shrewsbury to Birmingham railway line.

We also be consider a functional relationships to exist in the form of the Dudley Travel to Work Area (TTWA). Clowes Development's site at Lawnswood Road, South Staffordshire is located within the Dudley Travel to Work area, along with areas of the Black Country including Stourbridge, Kingswinford and Brierley Hill. TTWAs have been developed by ONS to provide an approximate self-contained labour market areas. These are areas where most people both live and work. They are based on statistical analysis rather than administrative boundaries. We consider that such measures should be used when determining the weight given to functional relationships with other Local Authorities.

The table below sets out the length of shared boundary between the Black Country and neighbouring LPAs. We consider this sort of geographical relationship should be considered when determining where contributions towards meeting the Black Country's shortfall should come from.

See Attachment for Table

This table demonstrates that only Lichfield of the LPAs bordering the BCAs has agreed to make a contribution to explicitly meet the Black Country's shortfall of housing land. This represents only 7.08% of the total shortfall of 28,239. In this context the Black Country should be seeking to secure a much larger amount from South Staffordshire as by far the largest LPA bordering the Black Country, particularly considering Birmingham's inability to contribute to remedy The Black Country's shortfall due to having a shortfall themselves.

Statements of Common Ground

We note at section 1.10 of the draft local plan there is reference to an intention to draft and agree statements of common Ground with relevant authorities and publish them at the publication stage of the Local Plan. The DtC statement also references that a SoCG will be produced taking on board engagement through the regulation 18 consultation with neighbouring LPAs. It is proposed that the SoCG contains actions and the SoCG will be submitted with the draft plan for examination.

We question why these SoCGs are not being drafted and regularly updated now, as recommended by the PPG (PPG Paragraph: 020 Reference ID: 61-020-20190315). Furthermore the BCAs proposal for the SoCG to contain actions and then be submitted at such is at odds with the requirement for Duty to Cooperate to be dealt with before submission of a Local Plan (PPG Paragraph: 031 Reference ID: 61•
031-20190315).

Meetings with Neighbouring LPAs

We note that another way the Black Country intends to evidence constructive engagement is through the publication of evidence such as that seen at appendix 3 of the DtC Statement, entitled: "Duty to Cooperate Meetings held from 2017 onwards". This lists out a number of meetings with different partners. The minutes, actions and outcome of these actions should be made public (albeit redacted where necessary). This would then suitably evidence cooperation. Otherwise it is not clear whether meetings have been useful I ensuring effective cooperation.

Another issue we have identified with the meetings that have taken place is that they are recorded as taking place at the earliest from September 2019 in the case of South Staffordshire, with meetings engaging other LPAs beginning in 2020. Consultation of the emerging Black Country Plan first took place in 2017. These meetings should have therefore been taking place and engagement being recorded at this point. We ask the BCAs to publish detailed minutes, lists of attendees etc. for the meetings referenced in appendix 3 and furthermore provide a clear indication of the level of engagement that has been taking place with HMA LPAs previous to February 2019 in order to satisfy the requirement for ongoing and meaningful engagement.

Level of unmet need from GBBCHMA

As set out above we have serious concerns regarding the level of housing that neighbouring LPAs to the Black Country can deliver in order to satisfy the unmet need. A key issue not discussed within the Black Country's consultation submission is the likelihood of the HMA shortfall being larger than the
2,597 dwelling figure identified in the HMA position statement 3.

Significantly, a consortium of housebuilders and promoters have recently commissioned a review of the Housing Market Area shortfall. They have concluded that up to 2031, the shortfall is around 19,000 dwellings and up to 2036 this could range between 50,000 and 60,000 homes.

Several issues exist with the HMA shortfall calculations, which are based on position statement 3, including:

- It covers the period 2011 to 2031, whereas the Local Plan runs until 2039.

- It does not reflect the standard method, particularly including the 35% uplifts required of Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

- Raw data has not been made readily accessible alongside the latest position statement, making it difficult to scrutinise the statement properly.

There is therefore compelling evidence for the existence of a higher level of unmet need from across the HMA LPAs, including the Black Country Authorities.

The level of unmet need across the GBBCHMA impacts the Black Country as it has the potential to reduce the amount of additional housing need that can be met and attributed to the Black Country.

There are a limited number of suitable sites currently identified and this will need to increase in order to accommodate the wider GBBCHMA need and the Black Country's individual need.

Key points for the Black Country Authorities to Consider

Only around 7% of the Black Country's shortfall has been agreed to be dealt with by neighbouring LPAs. Even in a very best case scenario this rises to 61 %, albeit a more realistic figure is perhaps around half as other contributions are made in relation to the wider GBBCHMA.

We consider that in order to fully address the obvious and identified shortfall, LPAs with the greatest geographical and functional relationship with BCAs should be making the greatest contribution towards this unmet need.

Our analysis below shows that South Staffordshire is the LPA with the greatest geographical connection to the Black Country (44% of the Black Country Boundary) and is partly within the Dudley TTWA, demonstrating a clear functional relationship for the part of the district within the TTWA.

The BCA should review their approach to maintaining records of and publishing SoCG and meetings, in order to suitably evidence compliance with DtC at examination of the Local Plan.

The BCAs should also consider a recent review of the Birmingham HMA shortfall which suggested the level of unmet need was much higher up to 2031 than has been set out by the LPAs. The BCAs should consider that the positon of the GBHMA unmet need from 2031 upto the end of the plan period in 2039 is unknown. The level of unmet need across the GBBCHMA impacts the Black Country as it has the potential to reduce the amount of additional housing need that can be met and attributed to the Black Country.